TRIBUTES 


TO   THE   MEMORY 


OP 

ROBERT    C.  WINTHROP, 


BY 


Cf>e  jftas&arfjuaette  l^fetorical  ^octetp, 


December  13,  1894. 


BOSTON: 

PUBLISHED    BY    THE    SOCIETY. 
1894. 


ES40 
VV5/V 


5Enibersttg  ^rcss: 
John  Wilson  and  Son,  Cambridge,  U.S.A. 


CONTENTS. 


Remarks  by  page 

George  E.  Ellis 5 

Lucius  R.  Paige H 

Resolutions  of  the  New  York  Historical  Society  ....  12 

Remarks  by 

Charles  C.  Smith 13 

Samuel  A.  Green 16 

Henry  Lee 20 

Hamilton  A.  Hill 24 

William  Lawrence 28 

Charles  Francis  Adams 31 

Letter  of  George  F.  Hoar 39 


979150 


jtta&tec^ettg  f tjstorfcal  Society 


DECEMBER  MEETING,  1894.     :    ;  ,,  .  .  .§  . 

The  stated  meeting  was  held  on  Thursday,  the  12th  instapt, ; 
at  three  o'clock,  p.m.  ;  the  President,  Dr.  GeoxgUT'Ev EliA3,' 
in  the  chair.  There  was  an  unusually  large  attendance  of 
members,  as  it  was  understood  that  the  time  would  be 
specially  devoted  to  tributes  to  the  memory  of  the  late  Hon. 
Robert  C.  Winthrop,  who  had  died  since  the  preceding 
meeting,  in  his  eighty-sixth  year.1 

After  the  reading  of  the  record  of  the  last  meeting,  the 
President  said  that,  in  accordance  with  a  vote  of  the  Coun- 
cil, the  regular  order  of  business  would  be  laid  aside,  and  that 
there  would  be  no  communications  of  the  usual  character.  At 
the  close  of  the  meeting  some  votes  which  it  would  be  necessary 
to  pass  at  the  present  time  would  be  offered  by  the  Treasurer. 
He  then  said :  — 

We  have  with  us  here  to-day  the  remembrance  only  of  an 
associate  so  long  identified  with  these  rooms,  and  so  valued 
and  honored  by  us  as  one  who  brought  to  the  Presidency  of 
this  Society  distinctions  won  in  the  highest  ranges  of  public 
service.  There  are  many  places,  scenes,  and  fellowships  in 
which  the  career  and  qualities  of  Mr.  Winthrop  will  be  re- 
viewed and  commemorated.  His  life,  lengthened  through  the 
fullest  span  of  years  till  its  springs  were  exhausted,  gave  him 

i  Mr.  Winthrop  was  born  in  Milk  Street,  Boston,  May  12,  1809,  and  died  at 
90  Marlborough  Street,  Boston,  November  16,  1894. 


6  TEIBUTES   TO   THE  MEMORY   OF 

space  for  the  exercise  of  his  rich  endowments,  attainments,  and 
accomplishments  in  many  and  varied  fields  of  elevated  distinc- 
tion. His  full  career  was  divided,  in  nearly  equal  terms  of 
years,  into  three  widely  different  forms  of  service  and  experi- 
ence. In  very  early  manhood  he  came  into  public  life  under 
the  most  favoring  influences  of  opportunity  and  popularity. 
With  a  fine  personality,  gifted  in  presence  and  in  speech, 
highly  cultivated  in  scholarship,  literary  and  classical,  with 
pre-eminence  in  family  and  social  position,  he  was  courted  and 
honored  by  rapid  advancement,  in  civil,  military,  and  political 
offices^,  in:  hife  native  State.  He  justified  the  partiality  shown 
to  hini  by  his  full  ability  to  meet  all  expectations,  by  his  eleva- 
tion of  character,  his  talents,  aptitudes,  and  eloquence,  on 
many  exacting  occasions. 

The  second  strongly  marked  period  of  his  career  was  that 
which  found  him  in  honored  positions  in  our  national  legisla- 
ture, in  the  convulsions  and  distractions  of  the  most  perilous 
struggle  in  the  life  of  our  country,  a  storm  in  which  two  seas 
met.  It  was  a  time  and  an  occasion  of  trial,  with  glooms  and 
catastrophes,  through  which  no  earnest  and  prominent  respon- 
sible actor  passed  unscathed  by  party  heats,  acrimony,  and 
challenging  of  principle  or  courage.  Mr.  Winthrop's  tempera- 
ment and  his  instructed  judgment  prompted  him  to  stand  for 
conciliation  and  peace  to  the  utmost  edge  of  the  alternative 
presented  to  our  country.  The  alternative  being  decided,  a 
fervid  and  steadfast  patriotism  guided  his  course,  without  pas- 
sion or  bitterness,  till  the  issue  closed.  Privileged  are  those 
among  us  who  have  lived  only  after  that  conflict.  For  those  of 
us  who  passed  through  it  the  best  we  can  now  do  is  no  longer 
to  revive  or  agitate  those  strifes,  but  to  reserve  them  for  quiet 
hours  of  reading  and  thought.  It  was  among  the  privileges  of 
his  lengthened  life  that  Mr.  Winthrop  survived  not  only  all 
his  leading  contemporaries,  but  also  the  most  embittered 
memories,  misjudgments,  and  alienations  arising  from  them. 
Such  of  them  as  concerned  himself  were  kindly  reviewed  and 
conciliated.     In  the  serenity  and  calm  of  advancing  years,  the 


ROBERT   C.   WINTHROP.  7 

memory  of  them  came  to  him  only  with  gentle  speech  and 
judgments  of  charity.  Politics  exempted  him  from  choosing 
place  or  responsibility  in  after  contentions  of  parties. 

The  third  period  of  Mr.  Winthrop's  life  was  that  in  which  he 
was  best  known  to  most  of  you  here.  It  has  been,  in  the  main, 
one  of  retired  dignity,  —  the  statesman's,  the  scholar's,  the 
honored  citizen's  years  of  retrospect  and  repose.  Yet  it  has 
been  by  no  means  an  idle  term,  enriched  as  it  was  by  labors  of 
the  mind  and  pen.  Our  last  great  bereavement  as  a  Society 
took  from  us  that  loved  and  gifted  man  to  whom  all  bright 
occasions  made  their  appeal  for  a  Poem.  To  Mr.  Winthrop 
like  appeals  were  made  for  Prose.  Besides  the  multiplied 
occasions  on  which,  with  learning,  grace,  and  felicitous 
speech,  he  met  the  constant  course  of  time  in  events,  with 
successive  actors,  it  was  his  privilege  to  rehearse  and  glorify 
the  four  most  signal  incidents  in  our  national  history,  —  the 
Plymouth  pilgrimage,  the  Centennial  of  Independence,  the 
triumph  at  Yorktown,  and  the  dedication  of  the  Washington 
Monument.  More  than  one  hundred  and  fifty  of  our  own 
countrymen,  of  various  distinctions,  besides  many  of  eminence 
abroad,  have  received  from  his  pen  biographical  or  memorial 
tributes.  From  the  four  published  volumes  of  his  orations, 
addresses,  and  speeches,  might  be  culled  a  well-nigh  continu- 
ous history,  narration,  or  relation  of  the  chief  incidents,  local 
and  national,  in  our  annals,  interspersed  with  the  agency  and 
influence  of  leading  characters.  In  the  wide  and  comprehen- 
sive range  of  benevolent  and  philanthropic  methods  which  are 
in  action  so  vigorously  in  our  own  privileged  community,  his 
years  of  retirement  were  most  assiduously  engaged.  His  name 
and  his  contributions  are  mentioned  in  connection  with  each 
and  all  of  them,  either  as  the  official  head  in  their  manage- 
ment or  as  a  generous  patron.  Our  best  organized  charitable 
institution  and  method,  Bible  and  other  religious  societies,  the 
Children's  Hospital  and  other  noble  objects,  engaged  his  devo- 
tion and  oversight.  Chief  among  them  was  one  most  dear  to 
him. 


8  TRIBUTES   TO   THE   MEMORY   OF 

It  is  well  known,  at  least  to  some  of  us  here,  that  after 
that  philanthropic  banker,  George  Peabody,  had  exercised  his 
own  judgment  in  disposing  his  munificent  benevolence  in  Eng- 
land, he  visited  his  native  country  with  the  intent  of  dividing 
a  yet  larger  sum  for  like  objects  here.  He  found  that  he 
needed  not  only  suggestions,  but  discerning  and  wise  coun- 
sel, intelligent  advice.  This  he  sought  and  received  from  Mr. 
Winthrop,  his  close  friend  for  many  years,  of  whose  charac- 
ter and  qualities  he  had  the  highest  estimate.  The  largest  gift 
our  Society  had  up  to  that  time  received,  in  money,  from  any 
individual  donor  was  that  of  Mr.  Peabody ;  and  he  wished 
it  understood,  not  being  himself  a  votary  of  history,  that  his 
gift  was  wholly  a  personal  testimony  to  our  President.  To 
the  last  month  of  his  life,  with  its  feebleness  and  its  burdens, 
Mr.  Winthrop  gave  his  absorbed  zeal  and  his  patient  oversight, 
in  supervision  and  in  detail,  to  the  administration  of  the  great 
Peabody  Education  Fund  for  the  South.  It  was  more  than 
a  surmise  for  some  of  us,  that  Mr.  Winthrop's  love  and  labor 
in  that  service  were  moved  by  a  sympathetic  desire  to  heal 
the  wounds  of  a  desolating  strife. 

The  chief  matter  for  recognition  by  us  here  in  the  long 
career  of  our  late  associate,  in  the  wide  range  of  his  accom- 
plishments and  interests,  is  his  connection  with  and  his 
great  services  to  this  Society.  More  than  once,  in  pleasant 
private  converse  with  him  in  his  later  years,  he  said  to 
me  that  the  place  he  has  filled  here,  with  its  duties  and 
opportunities,  had  furnished  many  of  the  highest  pleasures 
and  satisfactions  of  his  life.  As  a  member  of  the  Society 
for  more  than  half  of  the  century  of  its  existence,  and  its 
President  for  thirty  years,  only  our  older  members  are  fully 
informed  how  much  the  Society,  in  its  present  vigor  and 
activity  and  resources,  is  indebted  to  his  wise  promptings 
and  oversight.  His  family  name,  from  that  noble,  honored, 
and  revered  leader  and  Governor  of  this  wilderness  Colony 
who  first  bore  it,  with  its  gatherings  of  repute  and  esteem 
for   generations,  might   indeed   have    fitly   entered   into    the 


ROBERT   C.   WINTHROP.  9 

corporate  title  of  this  Society.  The  most  precious  relic  in 
the  manifold  treasures  of  our  cabinet  —  answering  to  the 
saintly  deposit  in  an  old  shrine  —  is  the  autograph  history 
or  journal  of  Governor  John  Winthrop,  who  was  more  than 
the  Moses  of  what  is  now  our  beloved  State ;  who  to  good- 
ness and  purity  and  wisdom  added  full  ability,  fidelity,  and 
consecrated  devotion  to  his  high  enterprise.  Some  three-and- 
thirty  years  ago  Mr.  Winthrop  succeeded  in  rescuing  from 
comparative  oblivion  in  Connecticut  an  exceptionally  large 
collection  of  ancestral  manuscripts,  which  among  its  priceless 
contents  disclosed  papers  bearing  tenderly  pathetic  evidence 
of  the  whole-souled  consecration  of  John  Winthrop  to  that 
exigent  enterprise.  They  showed  that  in  parting  with  ma- 
norial and  other  property  in  dear  old  England  and  in  investing 
all  his  means  in  this  Colony,  he  burned  his  bridges  behind 
him,  severing  every  tie  to  his  native  land,  and  yielding  every 
purpose  of  returning  there  again,  as  did  some  of  his  original 
associates,  to  his  sad  regret.  In  the  same  collection  were  found, 
as  his  Lares  and  Penates,  his  treasured  ancestral  and  family 
papers,  reaching  back  in  their  dates  and  subjects  to  a  period 
before  the  unveiling  of  this  New  World.  As  one  of  the  three 
most  opulent  of  the  associates,  he  gave  his  all  to  the  enter- 
prise so  exhaustively  that  when  he  died  the  Colony  assumed 
gratefully  the  guardianship  and  support  of  his  fatherless  and 
portionless  young  boy.  Besides  papers  of  his  father  and 
grandfather,  and  his  own,  there  were  later  ones  of  his 
sons,  grandsons,  and  great-grandsons,  including  a  mass  of 
correspondence  of  a  miscellaneous  character,  concerning  and 
revealing  interesting  personal  and  historical  information  of 
nearly  every  individual  known  and  active  in  our  first  cen- 
tury. Besides  original  papers  of  great  variety  and  value 
scattered  through  all  our  published  volumes,  six  of  them  are 
wholly  filled  with  materials  fitly  bearing  the  name  of  Win- 
throp. We  recall  with  what  modest  prefaces  on  his  own 
part  our  late  President  from  time  to  time  communicated  to 

us  some   illuminations   of  the  past   from   those    time-stained 

2 


10  TEIBUTES   TO   THE  MEMORY   OF 

records.  Among  them  is  one  which  as  we  take  it  in  hand 
seems,  as  by  an  electric  spark,  to  revive  its  message  of  tender 
sorrow  and  sympathy  from  the  long  past.  It  is  a  letter 
written  in  Governor  Winthrop's  house  (on  the  site  of  the 
Old  South  Meeting  House)  on  the  day  of  his  death,  March 
26,  1649,  signed  by  magistrates  and  ministers,  and  addressed 
"  To  our  deare  and  honoured  friend  John  Winthropp.  Esq. 
at  Pequod."  It  was  to  be  carried  by  an  Indian  runner, 
"  Nahawton,  whom  they  did  esteeme  a  Trustie  and  swift 
messenger."  Borne  through  forest  trails,  across  bogs  and 
streams,  it  conveyed  to  the  son  the  tidings  of  his  father's 
death.  Every  word  of  that  letter  seems  to  carry  with  it  the 
tears  and  tributes  of  hearts  "to  the  precious  account  and 
desert "  of  the  venerated  man  whom  they  solemnly  mourned. 
They  proposed  to  delay  the  "  funeralls  "  for  seven  days,  that 
the  son  might  be  present  and  have  "  the  ordering  "  of  them. 
It  is  grateful  to  know  that  the  runner  and  the  letter  fulfilled 
their  purpose. 

I  had  occasion  when  our  late  President  resigned  that  office 
to  make  a  brief  rehearsal  here  of  the  zeal  and  devotion,  so 
faithful  to  us,  which  he  has  given  to  this  Society,  to  its 
revived  activity,  to  the  increase,  development,  and  use  of  its 
resources.     My  words  then  are  on  our  records. 

Since  he  fell  back  into  the  ranks  as  an  associate,  he  has 
given  us  many  tokens  of  the  strength  of  the  ties  which  bound 
him  to  us.  Many  things  of  value,  for  shelf,  cabinet,  and 
record,  with  his  own  comments  and  interpretation,  enrich  our 
stores.  As  long  as  the  burden  of  increasing  years  allowed, 
borrowing  strength  from  his  wishes,  he  climbed  these  stairs, 
and  took  his  wonted  place  among  us,  seldom  without  gift  or 
helpful  words.  Of  his  courtesy,  urbanity,  and  dignity  of 
mien  you  were  all  observers,  and  will  keep  the  memory  of 
them.  Some  among  us  have  expressed  a  mistrust  lest  the 
once  familiar  bearing  and  style  for  the  conventional  term, 
"  a  Gentleman,"  might  yet  fall  in  with  the  "  Antiquities " 
collected  here.  We  all  of  us  know  one  who  bore  and  graced 
that  title. 


ROBERT   C.    WINTHROP.  H 

The  Recording  Secretary,  Rev.  Edward  J.  Young,  then 
read  a  letter  from  Rev.  Dr.  Lucius  R.  Paige,  now  in  his  ninety- 
third  year,  who  was  not  able  to  be  present,  together  with  some 
remarks  which  he  had  intended  to  offer  at  the  meeting.  Dr. 
Paige's  letter  and  remarks  are  as  follows :  — 

Cambridgeport,  Dec.  12,  1894. 
Dear  Sir,  —  Fearing  that  I  may  be  unable  to  attend  the  Society 
meeting  to-morrow,  and  acting  upon  your  suggestion,  I  forward,  here- 
with, a  copy  of  what  I  intended  to  say  if  I  had  the  opportunity. 

Truly  yours, 

Lucius  R.  Paige. 
Rev.  George  E.  Ellis,  D.D. 

Mr.  President,  —  I  shall  not  attempt  to  delineate  the  charac- 
ter of  Mr.  Winthrop  as  a  scholar,  an  orator,  or  a  statesman, 
but  shall  only  speak  briefly  of  him  as  a  personal  friend.  Like 
yourself,  Mr.  President,  and  several  of  our  associates,  both  Mr. 
Winthrop  and  myself  traced  a  lineal  descent  from  Governor 
Thomas  Dudley.  Whether  this  remote  kinship  had  any  in- 
fluence on  me,  I  know  not ;  but  I  do  know  that  on  my  first 
introduction  to  him,  I  was  conscious  of  some  peculiar  attrac- 
tion, which  became  stronger  and  stronger  as  our  acquaintance 
ripened.  No  cloud  ever  cast  a  chilling  shadow  on  us.  I  never 
failed  to  receive  a  cordial  greeting  when  we  met ;  and  our  birth- 
day and  other  written  salutations  have  not  been  interrupted 
for  many  years.  I  need  not  say  that  such  friendly  intercourse 
was  more  and  more  prized  by  me,  as  the  infirmities  of  age  in- 
creased, and  other  sources  of  happiness  diminished.  I  have 
had  my  full  share  of  the  sorrows  allotted  to  those  who  attain 
old  age.  One  by  one,  a  large  proportion  of  my  old  friends 
have  left  me  to  deplore  their  loss.  Especially  is  this  true  in 
regard  to  this  Society.  Of  all  those  who  were  members  at  the 
time  of  my  election,  you,  Mr.  President,  are  now  the  only  sur- 
vivor ;  and  Mr.  Saltonstall  alone  remains  with  us  of  those  who 
were  elected  during  the  next  fifteen  years.  Indeed,  of  all  our 
associates,  more  than  one  hundred  in  number,  who  became 
members  during  the  first  half  of  my  term  of  membership,  only 


12  TRIBUTES  TO  THE  MEMORY  OF 

fifteen  remain  among  the  living.  With  many  of  the  departed 
I  enjoyed  an  intimate  acquaintance,  and  I  deeply  lamented 
their  loss  ;  but  I  may  surely  be  pardoned  for  saying  that  the 
death  of  no  other  of  the  whole  number  has  affected  me  so 
painfully  as  that  of  Mr.  Winthrop. 

Mr.  Young  also  read  the  following  resolutions,  which  had 
been  adopted  by  the  New  York  Historical  Society,  and  trans- 
mitted to  this  Society :  — 

New  York  Historical  Society. 

At  a  stated  meeting  of  the  Society,  held  on  Tuesday  evening,  Dec. 
4th,  1894, 

The  President  of  the  Society,  the  Hon.  John  A.  King,  announced, 
with  appropriate  remarks,  the  death  of  the  Hon.  Robert  C.  Winthrop, 
LL.D.,  an  Honorary  Member  of  the  Society,  and  submitted  the  follow- 
ing minute  for  record,  which  was  unanimously  adopted  :  — 

Since  our  last  meeting  the  Society  has  learned  with  deep  regret  of 
the  death,  in  Boston,  Mass.,  on  the  16th  day  of  November,  1894,  of  the 
late  Robert  C.  Winthrop,  LL.D.,  an  Honorary  Member  of  this  Society 
since  the  4th  of  January,  1859,  when  he  was  elected  upon  the  motion 
of  the  late  John  Romeyn  Brodhead,  LL.D. 

Mr.  Winthrop  was  for  more  than  a  generation  the  distinguished 
President  of  the  Massachusetts  Historical  Society,  and  was  honorably 
connected  with  many  kindred  institutions,  national,  historical,  literary, 
and  philanthropical. 

It  is  therefore 

Resolved,  That  the  New  York  Historical  Society,  in  thorough  appre- 
ciation of  the  pure  and  high  character  of  its  late  Honorary  Member ; 
and  in  recognition  of  his  great  eminence  as  a  Statesman,  Scholar, 
Orator,  Philanthropist,  and  as  a  Christian  Gentleman,  desires,  in  offer- 
ing this  tribute  of  unusual  respect  to  his  memory,  to  bear  testimony  to 
the  serious  loss  sustained  by  the  community  and  the  whole  nation  in 
the  withdrawal  from  our  midst  of  a  citizen  who  had  been  so  distin- 
guished, and  of  such  public  benefaction,  during  a  long  life,  which  had 
been  graciously  extended  far  beyond  the  fourscore. 

Resolved,  That  a  record  of  these  proceedings  be  transmitted  to  the 
family  of  the  deceased,  and  also  to  the  Massachusetts  Historical  Society. 
Extract  from  the  minutes. 

Andrew  Warner,  Recording  Secretary. 


ROBERT   C.   WINTHROP.  13 

Mr.  Charles  C.  Smith,  having  been  called  on,  said :  — 

None  of  the  older  members  of  this  Society  can  have  come 
here  to-day  without  a  deep  feeling  of  the  services  rendered 
to  it  by  our  late  distinguished  associate.  Certainly  no  one 
who  was  privileged  to  sit  with  him  at  this  table  can  look  back 
on  his  Presidency  with  any  doubt  as  to  the  place  he  must 
always  hold  in  our  annals.  Of  those  who  served  with  him  on 
Committees  of  Publication  I  am  the  sole  survivor ;  but  there 
too  he  left  his  strong  impress  as  a  working  member,  to  which 
I  gladly  bear  testimony. 

Mr.  Winthrop  was  elected  a  member  of  the  Historical  Soci- 
ety in  October,  1839,  in  place  of  that  accomplished  gentle- 
man, the  Hon.  William  Sullivan ;  and  fifteen  or  sixteen  years 
later,  when  he  stood  twenty-fourth  on  our  roll,  he  became 
President  as  the  successor  of  the  Hon.  James  Savage,  then 
perhaps  the  highest  living  authority  on  New  England  history. 
Of  the  officers  elected  on  that  day,  one  only  is  now  living,  our 
venerable  and  valued  associate,  Rev.  Dr.  Paige ;  but  among 
them  were  three  men  whose  names  should  always  be  held  in 
honor  for  long,  faithful,  and  efficient  service  performed  here, 
—  Charles  Deane,  Richard  Frothingham,  and  Chandler  Rob- 
bins.  Sixty-four  years  had  passed  since  Jeremy  Belknap  and 
his  seven  associates  met  at  Mr.  Tudor's  house  in  Court  Street 
to  organize  this  Society,  and  the  highest  expectations  of  our 
founders  had  been  more  than  realized.  A  library  of  manu- 
scripts and  books,  now  of  priceless  value,  had  been  gathered  ; 
a  part  of  the  estate  on  which  this  building  stands  had  been 
bought,  and  thirty-two  volumes  of  Collections  had  been 
printed.  But  with  Mr.  Winthrop's  election  to  the  Presidency 
a  new  era  opened.  A  fresh  interest  was  given  to  the  monthly 
meetings,  and  a  larger  attendance  of  members  was  seen. 
With  the  Annual  Meeting  held  in  April,  1855,  when  he  first 
became  President,  began  the  publication  of  the  Proceedings, 
which  has  been  continued  without  interruption  down  to  the 
present  time  ;  and  before  he  left  the  President's  chair  two 


14  TRIBUTES   TO  THE  MEMORY   OF 

volumes  of  Early  Proceedings  were  prepared  and  printed  by 
a  committee  of  which  Mr.  Deane  was  chairman.  In  the 
mean  time  seventeen  volumes  of  Collections,  two  volumes  of 
a  Catalogue  of  the  Library,  and  a  volume  of  Lowell  Lectures, 
by  members  of  the  Society,  with  an  introductory  address  by 
the  President,  were  added  to  our  previous  publications. 
Mr.  Winthrop  had  been  a  working  member  himself,  and  he 
had  inspired  others  to  work.  The  gift  of  the  magnificent 
Dowse  Library,  mainly  by  the  intervention  of  a  lamented 
associate,  George  Livermore,  largely  increased  our  literary 
treasures.  The  purchase  of  this  estate  was  completed,  and 
the  present  building  was  erected.  This  was  not  all.  Of  the 
twelve  funds  now  on  the  Treasurer's  books,  eight  were  received 
during  his  Presidency ;  and  it  is  within  my  own  knowledge,  as 
it  is  within  the  knowledge  of  others,  that  for  the  largest  and 
most  useful  of  them  we  were  indebted  to  our  benefactor's 
grateful  regard  for  Mr.  Winthrop,  rather  than  to  an  interest 
in  historical  studies.  To  this  I  might  perhaps  add  that  all  the 
gifts  aggregated  under  the  title  of  General  Fund  were  also 
received  during  the  same  period.  By  his  last  will  Mr.  Win- 
throp gave  to  this  Society  a  generous  bequest,  without  restric- 
tions as  to  its  use,  which  has  already  been  paid  over  to  the 
Treasurer.  At  the  proper  time  the  Society  will  be  asked  to 
set  this  sum  apart  as  a  special  fund,  the  income  to  be  ex- 
pended as  the  Council  may  direct.  There  can  be  no  impro- 
priety in  adding  that  Mr.  Winthrop  was  not  possessed  of  a 
large  property,  and  that  this  bequest  must  therefore  be  counted 
among  the  most  striking  proofs  of  his  lifelong  interest  in  our 
work. 

Fortunate  in  his  birth,  fortunate  in  his  education,  fortunate 
in  his  training  on  larger  fields  of  endeavor,  and  in  his  wide 
acquaintance  with  men  and  affairs,  Mr.  Winthrop  brought  to 
the  Presidency  of  this  Society  qualifications  which  ripened 
and  expanded  down  to  the  very  close  of  his  service.  There 
never  can  have  been  a  more  dignified  or  more  graceful  presid- 
ing officer.     But  he  did  not  confine  himself  to  a  discharge  of 


ROBERT   C.    WINTHROP.  15 

the  routine  duties  of  the  chair.  It  used  to  be  said  of  him,  in 
no  unfriendly  or  critical  sense,  that  he  magnified  his  office. 
His  sketches  of  our  deceased  associates  read  here,  as  one  by 
one  their  names  were  erased  from  the  roll  of  living  members, 
form  a  unique  and  varied  portrait-gallery  ;  and  not  less  inter- 
esting and  valuable  were  the  personal  reminiscences  with 
which  from  time  to  time  he  enriched  our  Proceedings,  and 
the  original  documents  drawn  from  that  vast  storehouse  of 
historical  materials  fortunately  acquired  by  him  many  years 
ago.  Many  of  us  will  recall  with  pleasure  the  special  meetings 
of  the  Society  held  at  his  houses  in  Boston  and  at  Brookline, 
and  the  frequent  occasions,  in  summer  and  in  winter,  when 
the  same  elegant  hospitality  was  extended  to  the  officers  and 
active  members  in  smaller  numbers. 

At  no  time  did  Mr.  Winthrop  take  a  deeper  interest  in  the 
work  of  the  Society  than  in  the  last  years  of  his  Presidency, 
or  find  a  greater  satisfaction  in  the  discharge  of  his  official 
duties ;  but  he  was  especially  solicitous  that  his  term  of 
service,  which  far  exceeded  that  of  any  of  his  predecessors, 
should  not  be  too  much  prolonged.  In  more  than  one  year 
he  conferred  with  me  on  the  question  whether  the  time  had 
not  come  for  him  to  withdraw  from  the  chair.  There  could  be 
but  one  answer  to  that  question.  It  was  clearly  and  unhesi- 
tatingly given ;  and  it  foreshadowed  the  unanimous  judgment 
spread  on  our  records  at  the  Annual  Meeting  in  1885,  when 
it  was  announced  that  he  had  declined  to  be  a  candidate  for 
re-election.  Since  that  meeting  more  than  one  third  of  the 
names  now  on  our  roll  of  living  members  have  taken  the  places 
of  those  who  could  bear  personal  testimony  to  the  value  of 
Mr.  Winthrop's  services.  The  record  and  the  tradition  of 
those  services,  however,  will  always  remain  among  the  pre- 
cious inheritances  of  this  Society. 

In  what  has  now  been  said  I  have  purposely  dealt  only  with 
Mr.  Winthrop's  relations  to  this  Society.  But  it  must  not  be 
forgotten  that  his  Presidency  was  coincident  with  his  greatest 
intellectual  activity  in  the  same  field  outside  of  our  little  com- 


16  TRIBUTES  TO   THE   MEMORY   OF 

pany.  With  possibly  one  exception  all  those  great  addresses 
which  gave  him  a  foremost  place  as  a  master  of  commemorative 
oratory  were  delivered  while  he  was  the  official  representative 
of  this  Society.  The  oration  at  Plymouth  in  1870  came  mid- 
way in  his  Presidency,  and  was  followed  in  the  next  ten  or 
eleven  years  by  the  centennial  for  the  Declaration  of  Inde- 
pendence, and  the  address  at  Yorktown.  To  these  must  be 
added  a  long  list  of  addresses  delivered  on  less  memorable 
occasions  in  the  same  third  of  a  century,  which  would  have 
secured  reputation  for  any  other  orator,  and  which  together 
form  a  collection  of  permanent  interest  and  value.  It  was  in 
the  same  fruitful  period  that  he  published  the  two  volumes  of 
the  Life  and  Letters  of  John  Winthrop,  to  which  all  future 
students  of  our  earliest  colonial  history  must  turn,  as  they  do  to 
Winthrop's  own  journal,  to  complete  the  half- told  story  of  a 
great  life  and  of  the  beginnings  of  the  Massachusetts  Colony. 

Of  what  Mr.  Winthrop  did  in  political  life  as  a  member  of 
our  State  Legislature  or  in  Congress,  of  what  he  did  in  behalf 
of  organized  charity  and  to  alleviate  the  sufferings  of  helpless 
childhood,  of  what  he  did  to  raise  the  standard  of  theological 
education  in  his  own  religious  body,  as  President  of  the  Mas- 
sachusetts Bible  Society,  as  Chairman  of  the  Board  of  Trustees 
of  the  Peabody  Education  Fund,  and  in  the  various  ways  in 
which  a  public-spirited  citizen  makes  his  influence  felt,  much 
has  been  said,  or  will  be  said,  here  and  elsewhere ;  but  all 
reference  to  what  he  did  in  these  ways  has  been  left  for 
others,  in  order  that  emphasis  might  be  laid  on  his  relation 
to  the  purposes  for  which  this  Society  was  founded.  If  you 
seek  for  his  monument  here,  you  need  only  look  around  these 
rooms,  and  read  the  record  of  his  devoted  service  in  the  long 
line  of  our  Collections  and  Proceedings,  to  which  he  so  largely 
contributed. 

Dr.  Samuel  A.  Green  spoke  as  follows :  — 
When  death  comes  to  a  man  full  of  years  and  full  of  honors, 
who  has  led  a  spotless  life,  and  whose  bodily  frame  has  be- 


ROBERT   O.   WINTHROP.  17 

come  enfeebled  by  the  infirmities  of  age,  his  departure  is  not 
an  event  for  sorrow,  but  rather  an  occasion  for  devout  gratitude 
that  he  was  spared  during  so  many  years.  The  noble  example 
of  such  a  man  is  as  lasting  as  the  countless  ages  of  time,  and 
is  never  lost,  for  the  continuity  of  life  keeps  up  the  thread  of 
connection.  Of  this  type  of  manhood  Mr.  Winthrop  was  an 
eminent  instance ;  and  he  illustrated  in  his  own  character  so 
many  sides  of  a  distinguished  career  that  it  is  somewhat  em- 
barrassing to  select  that  particular  setting  in  which  he  shone 
the  most,  as  he  was  so  brilliant  in  them  all.  The  world  at 
large  knew  him  under  the  manifold  aspect  of  a  ripe  scholar,  a 
wise  statesman,  a  finished  orator,  and  a  Christian  philanthro- 
pist ;  but  at  this  time  I  shall  speak  of  his  work  solely  in  con- 
nection with  the  Peabody  Education  Fund,  that  noble  trust 
founded  to  promote  the  cause  of  popular  education  in  certain 
States  of  the  American  Union.  To  the  casual  or  careless  ob- 
server it  might  seem  that  labors  in  this  rough  and  uninviting 
field  were  beneath  the  attention  and  dignity  01  a  man  who 
had  filled  so  many  high  offices,  but  this  view  of  the  case 
would  be  superficial. 

When  George  Peabody  was  putting  into  definite  shape  the 
long-cherished  plan  to  distribute  in  his  native  land  a  large 
share  of  his  princely  fortune  in  token  of  his  gratitude  for  the 
many  blessings  that  had  been  showered  upon  him,  Mr.  Win- 
throp was  the  first  person  with  whom  he  held  long  and  confi- 
dential relations  on  the  subject.  For  months  before  the  letter 
of  gift  was  written  to  the  Board  of  Trustees,  he  had  been  in 
close  correspondence  with  Mr.  Winthrop  in  regard  to  the 
matter  ;  and  for  the  successful  beginning  of  his  great  bene- 
faction it  was  fortunate  that  Mr.  Peabody  had  the  advice  of 
such  a  counsellor,  which  on  the  one  side  was  freely  given, 
and  on  the  other  as  readily  accepted.  At  an  early  day  an 
Act  of  Incorporation  was  obtained  from  the  Legislature  of 
the  State  of  New  York,  under  which  his  almoners  were  cre- 
ated a  body  by  the  name  and  title  of  "  The  Trustees  of  the 
Peabody  Education  Fund."     By  this  Act  Mr.  Winthrop  was 


18  TRIBUTES   TO   THE  MEMORY   OF 

made  permanent  Chairman  of  the  Board  ;  and  it  is  needless  to 
say  that  the  duties  of  an  office  were  never  better  or  more  con- 
scientiously performed.  His  care  and  forethought  were  seen 
equally  in  the  larger  affairs  of  the  Trust,  and  in  the  details  of 
its  minutest  business.  No  subject  ever  came  up  for  consider- 
ation which  did  not  receive  his  most  thoughtful  attention, 
and  his  counsels  always  carried  great  weight.  Outside  of 
the  domestic  circle,  his  loss  will  be  felt  nowhere  to  a  greater 
degree  than  among  the  members  of  that  corporation,  who 
looked  to  him  for  practical  suggestions. 

When  Mr.  Peabody's  gift  was  made,  the  Southern  States 
were  staggering  under  many  burdens,  both  financial  and  politi- 
cal, resulting  from  the  effects  of  the  Civil  War ;  and  the  cause 
of  popular  education  was  met  everywhere  by  obstacles  that 
were  then  considered  almost  insuperable.  Public  schools  were 
unknown  in  those  States ;  and,  with  the  sparse  population  of 
the  neighborhood,  it  was  very  difficult  to  introduce  a  plan 
which  would  lead  up  to  such  a  system.  Entangled  with  the 
question  was  the  presence  of  a  large  class  of  unfortunate 
beings,  thoroughly  lacking  in  all  kinds  of  mental  training, 
for  which  they  themselves  in  no  way  were  responsible ;  and 
this  element  complicated  a  free  solution  of  the  problem. 

At  that  time,  without  some  aid  and  encouragement  from 
the  outside  world,  it  is  very  uncertain  what  course  of  action 
would  have  been  taken  in  order  to  ward  off  the  evils.  The 
fact  was  recognized,  however,  that  popular  education  was  the 
proper  remedy  for  the  troubles ;  and  Mr.  Peabody's  benefac- 
tion, coming  in  the  nick  of  time,  turned  the  scale  in  the  right 
direction.  The  number  of  schools  and  colleges  at  the  South 
helped  from  the  income  of  the  Education  Fund  in  former 
years  was  very  large ;  but  at  the  present  time  the  distribution 
is  confined  to  institutions  of  a  high  grade,  or  is  used  to  supply 
courses  of  instruction  and  lectures  among  teachers  in  the  sev- 
eral States.  The  testimony  of  the  various  Superintendents  of 
Education  in  those  States  has  always  been  strong  and  unani- 
mous in  regard  to  the  practical  help  thus  given. 


ROBERT  C.    WINTHROP.  19 

In  the  autumn  of  1886  a  Training  School  for  Teachers, 
under  the  charge  of  Professor  David  B.  Johnson,  was  estab- 
lished at  Columbia,  South  Carolina,  which  was  named  after 
Mr.  Winthrop,  in  recognition  of  his  eminent  services  in  behalf 
of  the  cause  of  popular  education  at  the  South.  In  December, 
1887,  the  school  was  incorporated  by  an  Act  of  the  General 
Assembly,  and  from  that  time  till  the  present  it  has  continued 
to  grow  in  the  number  of  its  students  and  in  general  pros- 
perity. To-day  it  stands  one  of  the  largest  and  most  success- 
ful institutions  in  any  part  of  the  country  for  the  training  of 
young  women  as  teachers.  A  touching  tribute  to  the  memory 
of  Mr.  Winthrop,  on  the  part  of  the  officers  and  students,  is 
shown  in  their  custom  of  keeping  the  anniversary  of  his  birth  as 
a  holiday,  and  of  celebrating  the  event  in  a  manner  befitting 
the  occasion.  This  school,  now  known  as  the  Winthrop  Nor- 
mal and  Industrial  College  of  South  Carolina,  has  far  outgrown 
its  original  limits;  and  at  the  present  time  a  large  and  commo- 
dious structure  is  in  process  of  building  at  Rock  Hill,  of  which 
the  corner-stone  was  laid  with  appropriate  ceremonies  on  the 
last  birthday  of  Mr.  Winthrop. 

In  his  Annual  Report,  made  at  the  end  of  1893,  President 
Johnson  recalls  the  fact  that  this  institution,  now  in  the  way 
of  becoming  so  conspicuous  and  destined  to  such  high  ends,  was 
originally  organized  without  State  recognition  through  finan- 
cial help  from  the  Peabody  Education  Fund. 

It  may  be  worthy  of  note,  also,  that  Mr.  Winthrop's  last 
formal  production  of  a  literary  character  was  an  address  pre- 
pared for  the  Annual  Meeting  of  the  Trustees  of  the  Educa- 
tion Fund  in  New  York,  on  October  4,  when  he  expected  to 
be  present  and  to  deliver  it  himself,  but  owing  to  the  infirmities 
of  age  was  unable  to  attend.  The  paper,  written  only  a  few 
weeks  before  his  death,  was  read  at  the  meeting,  and  showed 
on  the  part  of  the  writer  no  signs  of  mental  weakness ;  and  it 
was  marked  by  all  that  felicity  of  expression  and  vigor  of  style 
which  so  peculiarly  belonged  to  him  on  such  occasions. 

In  many  prominent  walks  of  life  Mr.  Winthrop's  efforts  have 


20  TRIBUTES   TO   THE  MEMORY  OF 

long  been  conspicuous,  but  in  the  humbler  fields  of  usefulness 
his  labors  have  been  equally  important,  and  in  after-years 
they  will  place  his  name  high  up  on  the  roll  of  those  men  who 
have  served  mankind  in  their  day  and  generation,  and  have 
reached  distinction  through  their  philanthropic  work.  The 
foresight  of  a  statesman  is  clearly  shown  throughout  Mr. 
Peabody's  great  scheme,  which  did  more  than  legislation 
could  have  done  to  close  up  the  rifts  caused  by  many  a 
deadly  struggle  between  brothers  of  the  same  household, 
friends  of  the  same  neighborhood,  and  citizens  of  a  common 
country.  For  these  delicate  touches  the  London  banker  was 
indebted  to  the  sagacity  of  the  gentleman  who  by  his  pres- 
ence so  often  graced  the  meetings  in  this  room.  Statecraft 
will  save  when  doubt  will  destroy. 

Mr.  Henry  Lee  said  :  — 

Mr.  President, —  Eighty-five  years  ago,  the  old  town  of  Bos- 
ton was  not  a  sojourn  but  a  dwelling-place,  year  in  and  year 
out,  from  birth  to  death,  from  generation  to  generation. 

Its  citizens  not  only  lived  in,  but  for  their  town ;  on  it  were 
concentrated  their  affections  ;  they  observed  all  anniversaries, 
they  participated  in  all  solemnities  and  festivities,  they  dis- 
charged divers  duties  now  delegated  to  paid  substitutes. 

In  my  school  and  college  days  Mr.  Winthrop  was  coming 
forward,  and  among  the  figures  of  the  past  none  is  more  dis- 
tinct than  his,  because  of  the  part  he  played  in  all  pageants, 
and  because  of  his  handsome  face  and  figure  which  made  his 
part  attractive. 

I  admired  him  marching  at  the  head  of  the  Harvard  Wash- 
ington Corps ;  later  as  captain  of  the  Boston  Light  Infantry, 
famed  for  its  spirit  and  for  its  series  of  handsome  young  offi- 
cers; later  still  in  perfection  as  senior  aide-de-camp  succes- 
sively to  three  governors. 

These  positions  he  owed  to  his  name  and  to  his  external 
gra  es ;  these  were  but  the  trappings,  he  had  that  within 
whi  jh  passeth  show. 


ROBERT   C.   WINTHROP.  21 

While  captain  of  the  Harvard  Washington  Corps,  he  was 
chum  of  Charles  Emerson,  the  most  remarkable  of  the  remark- 
able brothers,  and  he  had  the  third  oration  at  his  graduation. 

While  aide-de-camp,  he  was  elected  a  member,  and  before 
his  time  Speaker,  of  the  House  of  Representatives  ;  then  Mem- 
ber of  Congress,  where  he  rapidly  came  to  the  front. 

While  on  the  staff  of  Governor  Everett,  he  was  wont  to  at- 
tend the  dinners  of  the  Cadets,  and  to  gratify  us  not  only  by 
his  comely  presence,  but  also  by  his  graceful  oratory,  vying 
with  that  of  his  eloquent  chief.  A  stately  figure,  a  dignified 
manner,  a  mellifluous  voice,  gave  effect  to  his  words. 

After  Mr.  Everett,  we  have  had  no  orator  who  has  irradiated 
so  many  occasions,  local  and  national,  with  historic  research 
and  sage  reflections  presented  in  clear  and  euphonious  speech. 

I  allude  to  three  of  these  orations,  not  because  of  their  rela- 
tive superiority,  but  because  they  serve  to  illustrate,  —  his 
Bunker  Hill  oration,  his  power  to  reinvest  with  interest  a 
subject  already  exhaustively  treated  ;  his  oration  at  York- 
town,  his  skill  in  weaving  as  on  a  Brussels  carpet  loom  the 
intricate  web  so  as  to  assign  to  the  many  actors  in  that  siege 
—  French,  British,  and  American  —  their  places,  and  to  set 
forth  their  characteristics,  and  yet  not  to  impede  the  flow  of 
the  narrative ;  the  address  on  the  Centennial  of  the  Academy 
of  Arts  and  Sciences,  his  fulness  and  readiness.  Called  upon 
in  an  exigency,  with  but  twenty-four  hours'  notice,  he  gave 
an  interesting  review  of  the  century's  record,  and  discrimi- 
nating eulogies  on  its  most  eminent  members.  It  could  not 
have  been  more  complete,  more  finished,  if  he  had  taken  a 
month  instead  of  a  day  for  preparation. 

But  what  repeated  proofs  of  these  qualities  has  he  not  given 
at  the  monthly  meetings  of  this  Society  during  the  thirty  years 
of  his  presidency  ! 

A  letter  received,  a  document  unearthed,  a  lost  member  to 
lament,  an  anniversary  to  commemorate, —  some  opportunity 
offered  or  created,  was  improved  by  him. 

His  learning,  his  extensive  intercourse  and  correspondence 


22  TRIBUTES   TO  THE  MEMORY  OF 

with  interesting  men  at  home  and  abroad,  stored  in  a  tena- 
cious memory  ready  for  use,  enabled  him  to  invest  the  subject, 
whatever  it  might  be,  with  interest,  and  each  time  to  renew 
our  admiration. 

Many  of  us  can  claim  descent  from  the  magistrates  and 
clergy  of  the  first  generation,  but  unless  we  bear  their  names, 
our  claim  is  disputed  ;  we  are  virtually  disinherited,  we  are  not 
identified  with  them.  John  Winthrop  had  many  living  de- 
scendants who  had  thus  lost  their  inheritance.  Those  who 
were  heirs  of  the  name  as  of  the  blood,  had  passed  away 
from  this  vicinity. 

Mr.  Winthrop  had  six  brothers,  whom  some  can  remember 
as  handsome,  stalwart  men,  but  he  outlived  them  all. 

So  it  came  about  that  he  was  left  the  sole  representative  in 
Boston  of  the  family  in  his  generation ;  and  his  identity  with 
his  great  ancestor  was,  as  it  were,  thrust  upon  him. 

When  he  was  born,  the  contour  of  the  peninsula  (for  hap- 
pily it  was  still  a  peninsula)  had  been  preserved ;  it  was  the 
Boston  depicted  by  Emerson,  — 

"  The  rocky  nook  with  hill-tops  three 

Looked  eastward  from  the  farms, 
And  twice  each  day  the  flowing  sea 

Took  Boston  in  its  arms,"  — 

a  fascinating  semi-rural  sea-girt  town,  retaining  many  features 
of  its  old  colonial  days.  The  houses  stood  mostly  apart  in 
their  gardens,  some  of  them  associated  with  historic  names. 

Born  in  one  of  these  old  homes,  the  first  objects  which  met 
his  eyes  as  he  was  held  to  the  window  were  the  Old  South 
Meeting  House  and  its  parsonage  standing  on  the  Governor's 
Green,  the  home  of  his  ancestor,  the  wise  and  beneficent 
founder  of  the  town  and  State. 

The  contemplation  of  this  ancestral  ground,  the  sight  of 
old  houses  which  this  ancestor  had  entered,  family  traditions, 
the  reading  of  Winthrop's  Journal,  must  have  tended  to  as- 
sociate the  past  with  the  present,  and  to  impress  upon  him 
his  birthright. 


ROBERT   C.    WINTHROP.  2& 

If,  as  aide-de-camp,  he  rode  beside  the  governor  as  he  re- 
viewed the  troops  on  Boston  Common,  he  must  have  recalled 
the  day  when  the  two  regiments  in  the  bay  were  mustered  on 
that  same  Common  —  led,  the  one  b}^  his  ancestor,  Governor 
Winthrop,  the  other  by  the  deputy,  Governor  Dudley,  who 
was  equally  his  ancestor  —  to  perform  their  warlike  exercises. 

He  could  not,  as  an  officer  of  the  Ancient  and  Honorable 
Artillery,  receive  or  resign  his  spontoon  without  remembering 
that  it  was  his  ancestor  who  had  bestowed  the  charter  and 
who  had  presided  over  these  annual  ceremonies. 

He  could  hardly  attend  a  meeting  of  the  Massachusetts 
Historical  Society  without  hearing  our  first  governor  quoted 
or  referred  to. 

What  a  beautiful  manifestation  of  filial  piety  was  his  edit- 
ing and  writing  the  "  Life  and  Times  of  John  Winthrop,"  at 
once  a  romance  and  a  history,  giving  a  fascinating  picture  of 
the  life  of  the  lawyer  of  the  Temple  and  the  lord  of  the  Manor 
of  Groton,  surrounded  by  attached  friends  and  kindred ;  and 
of  his  forsaking  all  this  to  "  runne  an  hazard  with  them  of  an 
hard  and  meane  condition,"  by  agreeing  to  "  pass  the  seas,  to 
inhabit  and  continue  in  New  England  " ;  of  the  tender  part- 
ing and  happy  reunion  of  the  husband  and  wife,  and  of  the 
multifarious  cares  and  trials  and  achievements  of  the  gentle, 
wise,  magnanimous  man  and  magistrate,  during  his  nineteen 
years  here. 

Mr.  Winthrop  was  "  given  to  hospitality  "  ;  he  received  his 
friends,  his  friendly  acquaintances,  and  his  fellow-citizens  on 
appropriate  occasions  with  that  nice  gradation  of  manner  of 
which  he  was  master ;  he  entertained  strangers  of  rank  and 
distinction  in  the  full  sense  of  that  word,  and  he  leaves  no 
successor  with  the  inclination  and  the  ability  to  take  his 
place. 

The  proud  little  sea-girt  town  has  sprawled  out  into  a  dis- 
jected city ;  its  picturesque  profile  and  outline  are  gone ;  the 
waves  no  more  beat  against  the  Neck,  —  there  is  no  Neck ; 
the  old  James  Bowdoin  house  was  long  ago  wiped  away,  its  acre 


24  TRIBUTES   TO  THE  MEMORY  OF 

of  garden  covered  with  buildings ;  the  English  Puritans  are 
displaced  by  men  of  strange  speech  and  customs,  and,  bowed 
down  by  infirmities,  the  last  of  the  Boston  Winthrops  of  his 
generation  has  followed  the  long  line  of  his  ancestors  from  the 
first  governor,  and  faded  from  our  sight. 

Mr.  Hamilton  A.  Hill  said :  — 

I  shall  confine  my  remarks  to  one  of  Mr.  Winthrop's  his- 
torical addresses. 

It  was  my  good  fortune  to  be  a  member  of  the  executive 
and  legislative  party  which  accompanied  Governor  Long  to 
Yorktown  in  October,  1881,  to  take  part  in  the  centennial 
celebration  of  the  surrender  of  Lord  Cornwallis  to  the  allied 
armies  of  America  and  France.  On  this  occasion,  Mr.  Win- 
throp  was  the  orator,  and  it  was  his  last  appearance,  I  believe, 
before  a  large  audience ;  his  oration  on  the  completion  of  the 
Washington  Monument,  in  1885,  was  delivered  by  proxy. 

The  Yorktown  celebration  was  for  every  reason  a  memo- 
rable one.  Among  those  present  were  the  governors  and  high 
officials  of  the  original  thirteen  States,  and  of  many  of  the 
States  subsequently  admitted  to  the  Union  ;  General  Sher- 
man, Admiral  Porter,  and  other  officers  of  the  army  and  navy 
who  had  distinguished  themselves  in  the  War  of  the  Rebel- 
lion ;  representatives,  as  guests  of  the  nation,  of  the  French 
and  German  officers  who  participated  in  the  siege  of  Yorktown 
and  who  witnessed  the  surrender ;  and  President  Arthur,  who 
only  a  month  before  had  succeeded  to  the  chief  magistracy  on 
the  death  of  President  Garfield.  The  new  president  had  not 
had  time  to  construct  his  cabinet,  and  was  accompanied 
by  Mr.  Blaine,  Mr.  Lincoln,  and  other  members  of  the  late 
administration  who  were  holding  over  at  his  request. 

The  recent  national  bereavement,  as  Mr.  Winthrop  said, 
had  "  thrown  a  pall  of  deepest  tragedy  upon  the  falling  cur- 
tain of  our  first  century  "  ;  it  cast  its  shadow  over  the  York- 
town  celebration,  and  gave  an  undertone  of  sadness  to  the 
oration.     "  I  cannot  forget,"  said  the  orator,  "  that  as  I  left 


ROBERT   0.   WINTHROP.  25 

President  Garfield  after  a  friendly  visit  at  the  Executive 
Mansion  last  May,  his  parting  words  to  me  were,  '  Yes,  I 
shall  be  with  you  at  Yorktown.'  We  all  miss  him  and  mourn 
him  here  to-day." 

Among  other  features  of  the  celebration,  which  continued 
through  three  days,  were  the  presence  in  the  river  of  a  large 
number  of  vessels  of  war,  conspicuous  among  which  were 
Farragut's  ship,  the  "  Franklin,"  and  Winslow's,  the  "  Kear- 
sarge  " ;  a  review  of  ten  thousand  troops,  regulars  and  militia, 
by  General  Hancock ;  and  the  laying  of  the  foundation-stone 
of  a  monument  decreed  by  Congress  in  1781,  but  never  be- 
gun until  now.  The  19th  of  October  was  the  great  day,  when, 
after  addresses  by  President  Arthur,  M.  Outrey,  French  Am- 
bassador at  Washington,  the  Marquis  de  Rochambeau,  and 
Baron  von  Steuben,  Mr.  Winthrop  pronounced  the  oration 
which  he  had  been  invited  to  deliver  by  the  Committee  of 
Congress.  These  exercises  took  place  in  a  temporary  build- 
ing erected  for  the  occasion,  decorated  with  the  flags  of  the 
United  States,  France,  and  Germany,  but  otherwise  bare  and 
rude.  The  ceremonial,  however,  was  not  dependent  upon 
any  accessories  for  its  dignity  and  impressiveness ;  for,  as 
Mr.  Winthrop  said,  "  the  theme  and  the  theatre  were  above 
the  highest  art." 

At  my  request,  Governor  Long  has  given  his  remembrance 
of  the  day  in  a  few  words,  as  follows :  "  I  vividly  recall  Mr. 
Winthrop,  as  he  appeared  at  Yorktown  as  orator  there  at  the 
centennial  celebration  in  1881.  It  was  the  full  corn  in  the 
ear,  the  noble  presence  of  a  man,  past  threescore  and  ten 
indeed,  yet  so  vigorous  and  graceful  in  his  manly  ripeness,  so 
courteous,  dignified,  and  gentle  in  his  manners,  and  of  such 
impressive  intellectual  stamp,  that  he  was  easily  the  central 
commanding  figure  of  the  scene.  He  seemed  to  be  a  striking 
type  of  the  orator  of  forty  years  ago,  —  the  contemporary  of 
Everett,  —  a  Massachusetts  scholar  and  gentleman." 

Mr.  Archibald  Forbes,  the  well-known  English  correspond- 
ent, thus  described  the  scene :  "  Perhaps  the  decorum  of  the 


26  TRIBUTES   TO   THE   MEMORY   OF 

throng  was  equalled  by  its  evident  intelligence.  To  the  very 
end  of  Mr.  Winthrop's  prolonged  oration,  all  around  the  fringes 
of  the  audience  were  to  be  observed  people  with  their  hands 
at  their  ears,  jealous  lest  a  word  should  escape  them.  No 
point  made  by  the  speaker  was  missed,  or  failed  to  obtain  its 
fullest  meed  of  appreciation.  During  Mr.  Winthrop's  fervid 
and  eloquent  peroration,  the  intenseness  of  attention  on  the 
orator's  words  was  so  close  that  you  might  have  heard  a  pin 
drop.  The  people  had  come  to  listen,  and  they  listened  with 
all  their  force.'' 

Mr.  Forbes  was  impressed  by  the  great  tact  displayed  by 
Mr.  Winthrop  in  his  references  to  Great  Britain,  and  by  "  his 
hearty  and  unaffected  expressions  of  loving  good-will  for  4  Old 
Mother  England,'  "  as  he  called  her.  "  To-day,"  he  wrote, 
"  afforded  fresh  proof  that  a  warm  heart  is  the  truest  guide 
to  good  taste." 

Mr.  Winthrop  was  in  excellent  voice,  and  delivered  the 
oration  in  his  best  style.  This  was  the  more  gratifying  and  the 
more  remarkable,  because,  owing  to  the  poverty  of  the  arrange- 
ments, the  absence  of  proper  care  for  the  guests,  and  the  gen- 
eral confusion,  he,  in  common  with  many  others,  had  been 
obliged  to  suffer  discomforts,  if  not  positive  hardships,  which 
in  his  case  particularly  must  have  taxed  severely  his  powers 
of  endurance,  and  which  might  easily  have  embarrassed  him 
in  the  discharge  of  the  responsible  and  exacting  duty  to  which 
he  was  called.  It  was  said  of  him  and  the  other  speakers, 
"  Their  words  will  live  when  the  trifling  annoyances  of  the 
hour  are  forgotten  "  ;  but  it  is  only  justice  to  him  to  recall  at 
this  time  the  serious  disadvantages  in  the  midst  of  which  a 
great  oratorical  success  was  achieved. 

The  Yorktown  oration  is  generally  recognized,  I  believe,  as 
one  of  Mr.  Winthrop's  noblest  discourses.  The  story  of  the 
events  which  led  up  to  the  siege  and  the  surrender,  is  graphi- 
cally told  ;  and  a  competent  critic  has  said  that  no  more  note- 
worthy gallery  has  ever  been  painted  than  the  series  of 
portraits  which  he  has  here  sketched  of  the  men  of  the  va- 


ROBERT  C.    WINTHROP.  27 

rious  nationalities  who  on  either  side  were  prominent  in  the 
conflict.  It  is  safe  to  say  that  there  was  no  one  living  except 
himself  who  possessed  in  combination  the  personal  knowledge 
and  the  acquired  information  necessary  for  such  truthful  and 
brilliant  portraiture.  And,  all  unconsciously,  in  this  work 
of  delineation,  the  speaker  has  given  to  us  an  illustration  of 
something  very  characteristic  of  himself.  His  heart  was  so 
thoroughly  under  the  influence  of  that  charity  that  "  hopeth 
all  things,"  that  nil  nisi  bonum  was  his  rule  of  speech  concern- 
ing both  the  living  and  the  dead.  He  was  always  ready  to  say 
a  kindly,  pleasant,  and  graceful  thing,  when  this  did  not  in- 
volve the  obliteration  of  moral  distinctions.  At  Yorktown, 
while  there  was  no  breath  of  extenuation  for  the  treason  of 
Benedict  Arnold,  the  wilful  and  obstinate  king,  of  whom  an 
English  historian  has  not  hesitated  to  say  that  "the  darkest 
hour  of  English  history  lies  wholly  at  his  door,"  was  thus 
gently  dealt  with  :  "  Who  doubts  that  good  old  George  III. 
spoke  from  his  conscience,  as  well  as  from  his  heart,  when  he 
said  so  touchingly  to  John  Adams,  on  receiving  him  as  the 
first  American  minister  at  the  Court  of  St.  James,  '  I  have 
done  nothing  in  the  late  contest  but  what  I  thought  myself 
indispensably  bound  to  do  by  the  duty  which  I  owed  my 
people'?" 

The  tribute  to  the  character  and  services  of  Lafayette  was 
doubly  impressive,  as  spoken  by  one  who,  as  he  told  his 
audience,  had  "  personally  felt  the  warm  pressure  of  his  own 
hand  and  received  a  benediction  from  his  own  lips,"  under 
the  parental  roof  nearly  sixty  years  before ;  who  had  seen 
the  private  letter  written  to  President  Monroe  by  the 
French  patriot,  from  Yorktown,  October  20,  1824,  describing 
his  visit  to  the  place  on  the  forty-third  anniversary  of  the 
surrender ;  and  who  had  learned  from  the  lips  of  James 
Madison,  during  a  visit  to  him  not  many  years  before  his 
death,  to  think  and  speak  of  Lafayette,  not  merely  as  an 
ardent  lover  of  liberty,  "  but  as  a  man  of  eminent  practical 
ability,  and  as  great,  in  all  true  senses  of  that  term,  as  he  was 
chivalrous  and  generous  and  good." 


28  TRIBUTES   TO  THE  MEMORY  OF 

The  words  of  counsel,  of  warning,  and  of  hope  with  which 
the  oration  closed,  could  have  been  prompted  only  by  lofty 
patriotism  and  an  unswerving  Christian  faith.     The  cause  of 
education,  in  which  Mr.  Winthrop  had  been  heartily  enlisted 
for  many  years,  and  which  was  especially  dear  to  him  to  his 
latest  days,  was  most  earnestly  presented  in  its  relations  to 
the  prosperity  and  perpetuity  of  the  republic.      "  Universal 
education,"  he  said,  and  let  us  remember  that  he  said  this  on 
the  soil  of  Virginia,  "  without  distinction  of  race,  must  be  en- 
couraged, aided,  and  enforced.     The  elective  franchise  can 
never  be  taken  away  from  any  of  those  to  whom  it  has  once 
been  granted,  but  we  can  and  must  make  education  co-exten- 
sive with  the  elective  franchise ;  and  it  must  be  done  without 
delay,  as  a  measure  of  self-defence,  and  with  the  general  co- 
operation of  the  authorities  and  of  the  people  of  the  whole 
country."     And  again :  "  Slavery  is  but  half  abolished,  eman- 
cipation is  but  half  completed,  while  millions  of  freemen  with 
votes  in  their  hands  are  left  without  education."     It  seems 
proper  to  record  side  by  side  with  these  impressive  words  a 
sentence  written  in  preparation  for  the  annual  meeting  of  the 
Trustees  of  the  Peabody  Fund  in  October  last.     After  refer- 
ring to  public  events  which  had  been  discouraging  and  de- 
pressing during  the  official  year  then  closing,  Mr.  Winthrop 
added  :  "  Meantime  we  may  well  rejoice  that  the  great  cause 
of  popular  education,  so  far  as  it  is  in  our  hands,  and  which  is 
the  basis  of  all  our  best  hopes  for  the  future,  has  met  with  no 
check."      "  Popular  education,  —  the  basis  of  all  our  best 
hopes  for  the  future  "  ;  this  was  the  latest  utterance  of  a  long- 
cherished  conviction,  which  found  its  most  memorable  and 
perhaps  its  noblest  expression  at  Yorktown    thirteen   years 
before. 

Rt.  Rev.  William  Lawrence,  D.D.,  spoke  in  substance 
as  follows :  — 

Unfamiliarity  with  the  custom  of  this  Society  upon  such 
occasions  is  my  apology  for  speaking  informally  and  without 
notes. 


ROBERT  C.   WINTHROP.  29 

The  fact  that  Mr.  Winthrop  was  more  than  a  generation 
older  than  myself  limits  my  associations  with  him  to  the  later 
years  of  his  life.  His  remarkable  career  in  the  House  and 
Senate  of  the  United  States  is  pure  history  to  me.  At  the 
same  time  this  very  fact  suggests  one  interesting  feature  of  his 
character  ;  for,  though  of  an  earlier  generation,  his  sympa- 
thies were  strong  with  the  life  and  people  of  the  present  day, 
—  though  in  thought  and  manner  of  the  old  school,  he 
counted  among  his  many  friends  those  whose  chief  interests 
are  in  the  immediate  problems  of  life. 

To  the  boys  of  a  generation  ago,  Mr.  Winthrop  stood  as  a 
stately  representative  of  what  was  most  dignified  in  American 
life.  I  can  remember  him  driving  through  Brookline,  or  a 
guest  in  my  father's  house,  as  subduing  us  with  deep  reverence 
for  his  character.  The  fact  that  he  was  to  be  a  guest  made  of 
the  entertainment  an  occasion.  His  entrance  into  the  room 
gave  dignity  to  the  whole  company. 

To  see  Mr.  Winthrop  reverently  worshipping  in  Trinity 
Church,  Boston,  was  to  the  boys  of  that  generation  an  object 
lesson  in  the  essential  unity  of  statesmanship  and  Christian 
manhood.  In  his  religious  associations  he  was  a  Churchman, 
or,  as  he  would  prefer  to  say,  a  humble  and  unworthy  follower 
of  his  Lord,  Jesus  Christ,  finding  his  most  helpful  religious 
associations  in  the  Episcopal  Church.  For  his  hold  on  the 
Church  was  not  so  much  through  logical  conviction  as  through 
deep  sympathy  with  its  principles  and  traditions.  By  bonds 
which  are  often  stronger  than  logic,  the  conditions  of  inherit- 
ance, associations,  taste,  and  temperament,  the  essential  ele- 
ments of  the  Church  were  inwrought  into  the  texture  of  his 
character.  He  never  allowed  his  Churchmanship  to  limit  his 
sympathies  with  Christians  of  other  names,  and  he  counted 
among  his  dearest  friends  the  leading  members  of  many  other 
Christian  bodies.  His  devotion  to  the  parishes  of  Trinity 
Church,  Boston,  and  St.  Paul's  Church,  Brookline,  was  strong 
and  faithful.  Phillips  Brooks  was  his  frequent  guest  and  con- 
stant friend.     Mr.  Winthrop  was  for  sixty  years  a  member  of 


30  TRIBUTES   TO   THE   MEMORY   OF 

the  vestry  of  Trinity  Church,  Boston.  At  several  sessions  of 
the  General  Convention  of  the  Episcopal  Church  he  was  a  dele- 
gate from  the  Diocese  of  Massachusetts,  and  took  an  honorable 
part  in  the  discussions  and  legislations  of  the  Church.  His 
simple  faith  and  evangelical  spirit,  together  with  his  dignity 
of  bearing,  culture,  and  chivalric  temper,  combined  in  one 
personality  the  best  elements  of  the  puritan  and  the  cavalier. 

Mr.  Winthrop's  religious  faith  was  also  revealed  in  a  life  of 
charity.  His  great  work  in  connection  with  the  Peabody 
Education  Fund  has  already  been  alluded  to.  He  was  for 
twenty-five  years  the  President  of  the  Boston  Provident  Asso- 
ciation, and  for  a  number  of  years  President  of  the  Massachu- 
setts Bible  Society  and  of  the  Children's  Hospital.  He  held 
positions  of  responsibility  in  many  other  associations.  As  an 
Overseer  of  the  Poor  in  Boston  for  several  years,  he  devoted 
much  thought  and  time  to  the  problems  of  pauperism  and 
poverty,  even  in  their  minutest  details. 

When  Mr.  Benjamin  T.  Reed  founded  the  Episcopal  Theo- 
logical School  in  Cambridge  a  little  over  twenty-five  years 
ago,  Mr.  Winthrop  was  one  of  the  few  gentlemen  whom  he 
called  to  his  counsel  and  aid.  During  his  last  years  he  was 
the  only  surviving  member  of  the  original  Board  of  Trustees, 
and  for  over  ten  years  he  was  the  President.  The  School 
marked  its  twenty-fifth  anniversary  by  the  erection  of  Win- 
throp Hall,  given  by  patrons  of  the  School  in  recognition  of 
Mr.  Winthrop's  services  to  the  institution.  Built  of  stone,  of 
English  academic  architecture,  dignified  and  set  back  from 
the  street,  the  Hall  is  a  fitting  memorial  of  one  who  had  so 
deep  an  interest  in  all  that  Cambridge  with  its  University  and 
other  institutions  represents. 

Allow  me  to  close  these  informal  remarks  with  a  few  words 
which  suggest  one  or  two  other  features  of  his  character.  In 
exceptional  characters  we  are  often  asked  to  pardon  certain 
weaknesses  and  breaches  of  true  courtesy,  but  Mr.  Winthrop 
pardoned  none  such  in  himself.  Though  the  sweep  of  his 
interests  was  large,  he  allowed  no  details  to  be   neglected. 


ROBERT   C.    WINTHROP.  31 

As  the  presiding  officer  of  many  associations  he  was  not  a 
mere  figure-head,  but  he  gave  freely  of  his  time  and  thought  to 
the  smaller  as  well  as  to  the  larger  responsibilities  of  his  posi- 
tion. Courtesy  to  the  least  detail  was  an  essential  element  in 
his  character.  Even  in  his  later  years,  upon  the  entrance  into 
the  room  of  a  young  man,  Mr.  Winthrop  would  struggle  to 
his  feet  in  order  that  he  might  meet  him  with  dignity  and  full 
courtesy.  Bishop  Brooks  used  to  say  that  one  test  of  Christian 
charity  was  to  be  found  in  a  legible  handwriting.  Under 
this  test  Mr.  Winthrop  stood  high,  and  of  the  hundreds  of  let- 
ters that  he  wrote  one  will  rarely  find  an  erasure,  but  always 
the  free  hand  and  the  easy  style  of  a  true  gentleman. 

Mr.  Charles  Francis  Adams  then  said :  — 

Although  the  present  is  a  regular  meeting  of  the  Society, 
held  at  the  stated  time,  and  notified  in  no  unusual  way,  it  is, 
I  presume,  well  understood  that  we  are  here  to  despatch  no 
business  of  routine,  —  to  listen  to  no  papers  on  general  topics. 
We  have  come  with  but  one  thought,  our  obligation  as  a 
Society  to  Mr.  Winthrop  ;  and  to  bear  witness  to  the  personal 
and  even  affectionate  regard  we  feel  for  the  man. 

Yet  the  occasion  is  not  what  I  would  have  had  it.  I  am,  of 
course,  aware,  as  I  presume  all  here  are  aware,  that,  in  pur- 
suing this  somewhat  commonplace  course,  we  are  acting  in 
deference  to  Mr.  Winthrop's  understood  wishes,  as  expressed 
through  members  of  his  immediate  family.  He,  who  had  for 
so  long  been  such  an  overshadowing  personality  in  these 
rooms,  had  come  to  look  upon  himself  as  more  or  less  a  mem- 
ory,—  a  shade  from  the  past  in  them,  —  indeed,  to  many  of 
those  who  gather  here  only  as  a  fading  tradition,  —  and  accord- 
ingly he  thought  best  to  intimate  a  desire  that  his  death  should 
be  noticed  in  no  unusual  way ;  for,  in  his  own  estimate,  he 
had  already  long  passed  from  the  scene. 

For  one,  it  does  not  to  me  so  seem,  —  far  otherwise.  In 
this  matter,  therefore,  —  while  careful  to  pay  all  due  deference 
to  Mr.  Winthrop's  slightest  wish,  —  the  Society,  I  thought, 


32  TRIBUTES   TO   THE   MEMORY   OF 

owed  something  to  itself.  It  is  under  a  debt  of  obligation  to 
him  which  made  Mr.  Winthrop  —  no  matter  how  long  he 
might  live  or  how  completely  the  advance  of  age  might  sepa- 
rate him  from  us  —  ever  and  always  our  first  and  most  prom- 
inent member, —  in  spirit  and  by  general  acceptance,  as  well 
as  in  fact,  the  head  of  our  roll.  Any  exceptional  respect  we 
could  pay  his  memory  became  therefore  our  privilege,  from 
which  deference  could  not  debar  us.  We  owed  on  this  occa- 
sion something  to  ourselves  and  to  our  own  feelings.  My 
wish,  therefore,  was  that  now,  as  in  the  cases  of  Mr.  Deane 
and  Mr.  Parkman,  the  tribute  of  the  Society  should  be  em- 
phasized, and  should  go  upon  its  records  with  all  possible  form 
and  solemnity.  It  was  decided  otherwise  ;  and  I  regretfully 
concurred  in  the  decision.  Individually,  I  claim  my  privilege 
now. 

Of  Mr.  Winthrop,  I  propose  to  speak  as  one  of  Us,  —  as  for 
more  than  fifty  years  a  member  of  this  Society  and  for  thirty 
years  its  President;  but  first  I  want  to  say  a  few  words  of 
another  aspect  of  his  character,  and  to  me  a  most  attractive 
aspect.  As  we  go  on  in  life,  —  as  little  by  little  we  rid  our- 
selves of  the  ambitions,  the  hungry  craving  and  the  eager  self- 
assertions  of  youth,  and,  accepting  the  position  the  world 
assigns  to  us,  one  by  one  instinctively  in  our  turn  label  our 
cotemporaries,  as  we  put  them  away  in  the  pigeon-holes  of 
memory,  —  as  we  do  this,  I  say,  we  come  more  and  more  to 
realize  that  with  men  the  essential  thing,  after  all,  is  not  what 
they  do,  but  what  they  are.  In  the  course  of  a  long  life  the 
inner  nature  is  surely  revealed,  whether  in  success  or  in  adver- 
sity ;  and  better  is  he  that  ruleth  his  spirit  than  he  that  taketh 
a  city.  Much  reference  has  been  made  since  Mr.  Winthrop's 
death  to  his  connection  with  public  life,  —  so  brilliant  in  its 
beginning,  and  so  soon,  so  long  since,  brought  to  an  abrupt  and 
early  close.  It  was  to  public  life  that  Mr.  Winthrop  first 
devoted  himself;  it  was  to  that  he  felt  a  call;  and,  to  the  call, 
he  answered.  His  course  was  at  the  outset,  and  long,  a  suc- 
cession of  triumphs ;  —  Speaker  of  the  Massachusetts  House 


ROBERT  C.    WINTHROP.  33 

of  Representatives  at  29  ;  member  of  Congress  at  31 ;  Speaker 
of  the  National  House  of  Representatives  at  38  ;  United  States 
Senator  at  41 ;  there  seemed  no  prize  of  public  life  to  which 
he  might  not  with  reason  as  well  as  confidence  aspire.  All 
this  was  so  long  ago  that  the  generation  which  knew  of  it  has 
quite  passed  away ;  but,  a  legend  now,  it  was  none  the  less  a 
reality  then.  Those  even  of  fifty  years  do  not  realize,  and 
when  told  will  hardly  credit,  the  possibilities  of  both  office 
and  influence  which  then  seemed  open  to  Mr.  Winthrop, — 
waiting  for  him  to  grasp  them.  To  appreciate  these  possi- 
bilities one  must  go  back  out  of  the  present,  —  back  through 
the  forty-year  deluge  of  events,  —  to  the  half-forgotten  mem- 
ories or  the  unfamiliar  records  of  what  has  become  already  an 
historic  —  almost  a  remote  —  past.  There  was,  for  instance, 
little  in  common  between  Robert  Charles  Winthrop  and  John 
Greenleaf  Whittier  ;  yet  in  July,  1854,  Whittier,  a  man  of  47, 
wrote  to  Emerson  thus  of  Winthrop,1  a  man  of  45,  "  I  may 
be  mistaken,  but  I  fully  believe  that  Robert  C.  Winthrop  holds 
in  his  hands  the  destiny  of  the  North,"  —  and  he  then  goes  on 
to  point  out  how,  by  pursuing  a  certain  political  course,  Mr. 
Winthrop  might  fix  the  attitude  of  New  England  on  the  great 
issue  of  the  day.  And  even  now,  looking  back  beyond  the 
far  different  event,  it  seems  to  me  the  Quaker  poet,  who  was 
not  lacking  in  political  shrewdness,  had  reason  for  his  faith. 
He  clearly  saw  in  the  impending  upheaval  the  possibility  for 
Mr.  Winthrop  to  take  that  course  in  New  England  politics 
which  at  the  very  time  Mr.  Seward  actually  did  take  in  the 
politics  of  New  York.  As  is  evident  now  also,  the  opportunity 
did  exist. 

This  is  no  time  to  consider  why  Mr.  Winthrop  did  not  see 
his  way  to  grasp  the  great  occasion.  I  will  merely  say  that  I 
do  not  think  his  were  the  temper  and  the  cast  of  mind  to  grapple 
with  the  conditions  of  the  time  in  which  his  lot  was  then  cast. 
He  was  by  nature  adapted  for  more  orderly  surroundings,  more 
formal  and  regular  events;  and,  just  as  two  centuries  earlier 

1  Piekard,  Life  and  Letters  of  John  Greenleaf  Whittier,  p.  374. 


34  TRIBUTES   TO   THE   MEMORY   OP 

and  on  another  but  not  dissimilar  stage,  Hyde  and  Falkland 
gave  way  to  Pym  and  Vane,  so  in  1854  the  trained  and  more 
moderate  public  characters  of  the  earlier  period  were  forced 
into  the  background  by  the  fiercer  energy  of  those  by  Nature 
selected  to  do  the  rough,  stern  work  then  in  hand  to  be  done. 

This  Mr.  Winthrop  could  at  the  time  hardly  see ;  nor  did 
others,  I  remember,  see  it  more  clearly  than  he.  Checked  in 
the  full  swim  of  success  and  thrown  out  of  public  life  in  1851, 
when  only  forty-two  years  of  age,  Mr.  Winthrop  had  a  right  to 
suppose  that  in  his  chosen  career  he  had  sustained  a  mere  tem- 
porary reverse.  And  I  remember  well  a  remark  of  my  father's 
to  me,  —  for,  boy  though  I  then  was,  I  took  an  intense  interest 
in  the  politics  of  the  day, —  I  well  remember,  I  say,  a  remark 
of  my  father's,  who,  at  the  time,  was  strenuous  on  the  opposite 
side  to  Mr.  Winthrop,  to  the  effect  that,  so  far  as  Mr.  Webster 
was  concerned,  at  his  advanced  age  Mr.  Sumner's  election  to 
the  Senate  was  a  final  and  fatal  political  blow ;  but  as  for  Mr. 
Winthrop,  he  added,  "  he  has  only,  like  every  one  else  in  poli- 
tics, had  a  stroke  of  ill-luck,  —  the  wheel  will  turn  again." 
But,  for  Mr.  Winthrop,  the  political  wheel  never  did  turn 
again;  it  stopped  midway  in  his  life,  and  it  stopped  when 
its  movement  was  fast,  and  seemed  sure. 

Then  it  was  that  the  man's  nature,  coming  to  the  surface, 
slowly  asserted  itself  for  what  it  was  worth.  His  chosen  career 
was  thenceforth  closed  to  him  ;  and  hope  deferred  maketh  sick 
the  heart.  To  others  belonged  the  prizes  which  had  seemed 
within  his  sure  grasp ;  and,  at  the  age  when  to  most  life  only 
just  begins  to  move  on  assured  lines,  the  path  closed  for  him. 
He  was  destined  thenceforth,  a  mere  looker-on,  to  watch  the 
chosen  arena  in  which  it  was  no  longer  his  to  strive.  The 
acid  of  disappointment  is  to  man's  nature  a  test  not  less  severe 
than  the  intoxication  of  success ;  and,  under  such  circum- 
stances, the  poorer  nature  is  apt  to  evince  bitterness,  to  indulge 
in  covert  criticism,  if  not  open  attack,  —  to  repine  over  lost 
opportunities,  and  give  way  to  discouragement  and  sloth. 
With  Mr.  Winthrop  there  was  none  of  this.     Accepting  the 


ROBERT   C.   WINTHROP.  35 

situation,  dignified  in  defeat,  he  set  to  work  in  the  narrower 
field  to  which  the  chances  of  political  life  had  consigned  him, 
and  in  that  field  made  himself  supremely  useful;  nor  this  alone, 
as  the  years  passed  on  he  became  ever  more  dignified,  more 
gracious  and  more  kindly  in  bearing  and  in  speech,  more  chary 
of  criticism  and  more  aidful  in  action.  Like  good  wine,  he 
ever,  even  to  the  late  end,  improved  with  age.  What  more 
or  better  could  be  said  ? —  It  is  not  what  we  do,  but  what  we 
are  ;  and  better  is  he  that  ruleth  his  spirit  than  he  that  taketh 
a  city. 

But  it  is  of  Mr.  Winthrop  as  member  and  President  of  this 
Society,  and  not  of  Mr.  Winthrop  as  a  political  character,  that 
I  have  said  I  more  especially  proposed  to  speak.  As  its  Pres- 
ident through  thirty  years,  —  a  third  part  nearly  of  its  entire 
existence  at  the  time  he  resigned  the  position,  —  the  Massa- 
chusetts Historical  Society  owes  to  Mr.  Winthrop  a  debt  of 
obligation  hard  to  overstate  and  impossible  for  it  to  pay.  He 
gave  it  form,  consistence,  character,  dignity,  momentum.  For 
such  a  Society  as  this,  he  was,  too,  an  ideal  head ;  for  not 
only  did  he  possess  every  essential  attribute,  but  he  pos- 
sessed each  attribute  in  a  high  degree.  The  descendant  of 
him  correctly  known  as  "the  Father  of  New  England,"  a 
patrician,  a  distinguished  orator,  an  author  as  well  as  a  care- 
ful historical  investigator,  a  courteous  and  dignified  presiding 
officer  having  the  interests  of  the  Society  always  at  heart, 
Mr.  Winthrop  had  not  only  means  and  a  universally  recog- 
nized social  position,  but  in  a  marked  degree  also  he  had  what 
is  known  as  the  social  faculty.  So  he  loved  to  dispense  a  gen- 
erous hospitality ;  and  as  one  passed  through  his  doors,  there 
came  the  feeling  that  he  who  entertained  us  was  to  the  man- 
ner born,  and  that  the  Society  participated  in,  was  in  itself 
a  part  of,  all  that  he  had  or  was.  As  our  President  he  thus 
constantly  magnified  the  position  ;  and  in  so  doing  he  magni- 
fied our  Society.  Unless  I  greatly  err,  also,  Mr.  Winthrop,  so 
far  as  this  organization  was  concerned,  had  an  ideal  which  he 
more  than  any  man  I  have  ever  met  was  qualified  to  realize, 


36  TRIBUTES   TO  THE   MEMORY   OF 

had  fate  been  propitious  to  him,  —  a  lofty  ideal ;  but  he  was 
for  himself  and  the  work  he  thought  to  do  not  fortunate,  — 
he  was  a  day  too  late  in  public  life,  a  day  too  early  in  the  evo- 
lution of  learned  societies.  He  should  have  been  the  Presi- 
dent of  the  American  Academy  ;  and  the  time  for  the  Ameri- 
can Academy  has  not  yet  come. 

And  when  I  speak  of  the  American  Academy,  I  have  in 
mind  something  which  has  not  yet  assumed  form,  —  some- 
thing which  our  material  and  political  conditions  have  in  fact 
hitherto  not  favored,  and  may  render  for  a  long  time,  perhaps 
forever,  impracticable.  I  am  of  those  who  think  that  neither 
democracy,  as  it  is  called,  nor  democratic  methods,  have  to  do 
with  literature,  science,  or  art.  These,  in  their  highest  form, 
are  the  ultimate  results  of  a  great  concentration  of  life,  wealth, 
and  thought,  —  of  evolution,  and  the  survival  of  the  intellect- 
ual fittest.  Just  as  there  is  no  royal  road,  so  there  is  no  popu- 
lar path  to  true  learning,  or  correct  observation,  or  refined  taste. 
Instead  of  developing  on  our  political  lines,  therefore,  and 
seeking  expansion  in  the  largest  possible  membership,  as  has 
been  too  often  the  case  with  the  so-called  learned  societies  of 
this  country,  the  Academy  should,  it  seems  to  me,  run  directly 
counter  to  those  lines,  and  seek  to  concentrate  in  itself  only 
the  last  and  best  results  of  educational  effort.  It  is  member- 
ship in  the  Academy  that  should  be  sought;  and  not  members 
for  it.  It  was  such  a  society  as  this,  I  think,  that  Mr.  Win- 
throp  had  ever  in  mind ;  a  Society  the  seal  of  which  should 
be  recognized  as  a  mint  mark  ;  a  Society  an  election  to  which 
should  be  to  an  American  what  an  election  to  the  Academy  is 
to  a  Frenchman,  —  the  blue  ribbon  of  letters.  And  surely,  no 
American  of  his  day  was  so  well  qualified  as  Mr.  Winthrop  to 
guide  the  policy  and  preside  at  the  sittings  of  such  a  Society. 
Industrious,  methodical  and  learned,  —  grave,  eloquent,  digni- 
fied and  courteous  —  coming  of  a  distinguished  ancestry  to 
which  he  himself  gave  new  distinction,  a  leader  in  social  life,  — 
he  naturally  assumed  leadership  there,  and  that  leadership  was 
tacitly  conceded  to  him.     Thus  endowed,  he  did  much  for  us  ; 


ROBERT   C.    WINTHROP.  37 

unfortunately,  we  could  not  in  return  give  him  a  theatre  suffi- 
cient for  the  full  display.  The  stage  at  best  was  narrow,  and 
his  audience  small. 

I  have  said  that  Mr.  Winthrop  was  essentially  a  patrician  ; 
and  in  his  case  that  word  implies  a  great  deal,  —  far  more  than 
at  once  appears.  More  than  any  man  I  ever  met,  with  the 
exception  possibly  of  the  late  President  Quincy,  Mr.  Winthrop 
filled  the  conception  of  what  an  hereditary  peer  in  the  best 
English  sense  should  be  ;  but,  far  more  than  Mr.  Quincy,  with 
his  robust,  fiery  energy,  Mr.  Winthrop  gave  one  the  idea  of 
being  in  this  country  somewhat  out  of  place,  —  he  was  a  little 
declasse.  He  had  to  make  his  own  position  ;  in  England  he 
would  have  found  it  made  for  him,  and  he  would  have  filled 
it  to  perfection.  He  would  have  been  in  his  native  element 
in  the  House  of  Lords,  and,  there,  a  potent  factor  for  good. 
It  would  have  been  the  same  in  social  life ;  on  the  platform  of 
the  learned  or  scientific  association  ;  at  the  council  board.  He 
would  have  worn  his  robes  and  upheld  his  coronet  with  grace 
and  native  ease,  as  one  born  to  them.  He  would  have  been 
an  ideal  Speaker  of  the  Commons ;  and,  as  a  Lord  Lieutenant, 
he  would  have  carried  himself  as  should  the  representative 
of  a  Crown.  Conscious  of  the  responsibilities  as  well  as  of 
the  dignity  of  rank,  he  would  never  have  forgotten  its  pres- 
tige or  abused  its  privilege.  Thus  he  would  have  vindicated 
and  justified  an  aristocracy ;  while  in  a  democracy,  even  though 
born  and  brought  up  to  it,  he  was  never  in  all  respects  fully 
at  home.  To  him  the  atmosphere  was  thin  and  chill.  Though 
he  probably  never  realized  it,  and  might  even  have  warmly, 
though  always  courteously,  have  denied  the  imputation,  he 
would  have  thriven  better  in  another  clime,  —  amid  an  atmos- 
phere of  tradition,  recognition,  and  caste.  Craving  form  and 
state  and  ritual,  he  would,  as  I  have  said,  have  conferred 
lustre  on  an  Earldom. 

Thus  the  going  of  Mr.  Winthrop  marks  a  veritable  epoch  in 
the  history  of  our  Society.  Through  more  than  twenty  years, 
ever  since  the  death  of  Mr.  Savage  in  March,  1873,  his  name 


38  TRIBUTES   TO   THE  MEMORY   OF 

has  headed  the  roll  of  our  membership,  his  presence  has  filled 
this  room.  There  is  in  the  possession  of  the  Society  a  photo- 
graph of  its  members  grouped  together  in  front  of  Mr.  Win- 
throp's  home  at  Brookline  on  an  occasion  when,  as  was  his 
wont,  he  entertained  them  there  on  a  pleasant  day  in  June 
some  thirty  years  ago.  In  that  group  the  figure  of  Mr. 
Winthrop  is  the  central  figure,  —  that  about  which  the  others 
seem  naturally  to  arrange  themselves ;  and  one  instantly  ac- 
cepts the  fact,  feeling  that  it  was  right  and  proper  it  should 
be  so,  —  altogether  appropriate  and  in  accordance  with  the 
fitness  of  things.  That  photograph  was  in  its  arrangement 
typical  of  the  Society,  before  and  then  and  since.  The  first 
name  is  stricken  from  our  list ;  the  central  figure  gone  from 
our  gatherings. 

It  lacks  now  less  than  six  months  of  a  full  score  of  years 
since  I  first  entered  these  rooms  as  a  member.  Mr.  Winthrop 
then  occupied  the  chair  which  you,  Sir,  now  fill  ;  for  yet  ten 
years  longer  he  continued  to  occupy  that  chair.  For  the  rest, 
the  names  since  one  by  one  dropped  from  our  roll  speak  for 
themselves  ;  and  they  speak  too  for  our  Society.  Next  to 
Mr.  Winthrop  came  my  father ;  and  not  far  below  was  Hil- 
lard.  Further  on  were  Richard  Frothingham,  Charles  Deane 
and  Francis  Parkman,  a  notable  trio.  The  name  of  John 
Lothrop  Motley  presently  arrested  the  eye  ;  and  then,  in  close 
juxtaposition,  those  of  Oliver  Wendell  Holmes  and  Henry 
Wadsworth  Longfellow,  — par  nobile  fratrum.  Jacob  Bigelow 
also  was  there,  with  Richard  Henry  Dana,  Russell  Lowell  and 
Edmund  Quincy  ;  while  Rockwood  Hoar  and  Ralph  Waldo 
Emerson,  the  two  survivors  of  the  great  Concord  trium- 
virate, —  the  first  still  of  us,  but,  alas !  never  again  to  fill 
here  his  accustomed  chair ;  the  last  an  ever-mightier  shade,  — 
these  two  fitly  close  the  great  procession.  I  have  said  that 
Mr.  Winthrop's  stage  here  was  narrow  and  his  audience  small  ; 
but  those  I  have  named  constitute  a  goodly  company.  Then 
they  were  all  living  men,  —  our  associates  here  ;  associates 
than  which  no  Society  whether  in  the  New  World  or  in  the  Old 


ROBERT  C.    WINTHROP.  39 

could  boast  a  choicer  array.  Orators,  statesmen,  and  diplomats  ; 
historians,  poets  and  conversationalists;  wits,  jurists,  philan- 
thropists, philosophers,  —  they  were,  and  they  remain,  a  galaxy 
the  brilliancy  of  which  time  will  only  enhance.  They  are  now 
all  names  and  memories  ;  but,  great  and  radiant  as  many  of 
them  are,  they  will  ever  in  the  memory  of  us,  their  survivors 
in  this  room,  group  themselves  naturally  and  as  of  course, 
even  as  in  the  photograph  I  have  referred  to,  about  that  one 
dignified  figure  and  gracious  courtly  presence,  —  the  figure 
and  the  presence  of  Robert  Charles  Winthrop. 

The  President  then  asked  the  members,  without  adopting  a 
formal  vote,  to  express  their  regard  and  gratitude  to  their  late 
associate  by  rising,  and  all  rose. 

The  Treasurer,  Mr.  Charles  C.  Smith,  said  that  there  were 
some  matters  of  business  on  which  it  was  necessary  or  desirable 
for  the  Society  to  take  action  at  this  meeting.  As  he  had 
stated,  Mr.  Winthrop's  bequest  of  five  thousand  dollars  had 
already  been  paid  into  the  treasury ;  and  he  accordingly  pre- 
sented the  following  vote,  which  was  unanimously  adopted  :  — 

Voted,  That  a  Fund  be  created  to  be  called  the  Robert.  C. 
Winthrop  Fund,  the  income  whereof  shall  be  expended  for 
such  purposes  as  the  Council  may  from  time  to  time  direct. 


Our  distinguished  associate,  Senator  Hoar,  was  prevented 
from  being  present  at  this  meeting,  owing  to  the  session  of 
Congress ;  but  the  esteem  in  which  he  held  Mr.  Winthrop  is 
evidenced  by  the  following  letter  from  him  to  the  latter's  son, 
at  whose  request  it  is  here  inserted. 

United  States  Senate,  December  4,  1894. 

My  dear  Mr.  Winthrop,  —  In  spite  of  your  father's  four- 
score and  five  years,  and  of  the  fact  that  few  men  living  can 
remember  the  time  when  he  was  not  held  to  be  one  of  the 
great  men  of  the  country,  it  almost  seems  as  if  his  death  were 
premature. 


40  TRIBUTES   TO   THE  MEMORY   OF   R.    C.  WINTHROP. 

His  intellect  seemed  during  these  last  years  as  vigorous  and 
fresh  as  when  he  made  his  first  appearance  in  public  on  a 
great  occasion  at  the  Harvard  Centennial  in  1836.  He  was 
our  finest  example  of  the  grand  old  name  of  gentleman,  and 
his  departure  is  not  merely  the  end  of  a  great  individual 
career,  but  the  severing  of  the  last  living  tie  with  a  great 
generation. 

While  my  first  political  activity  was  in  very  earnest  oppo- 
sition to  the  party  of  which  he  was  one  of  the  most  conspicu- 
ous leaders,  and  while  I  believe  he  has  never  voted  for  the 
candidates  whom  I  supported,  yet  I  have  been  in  accord  with 
him  in  political  opinion  in  many  important  particulars,  and  I 
am  gratified  and  surprised  to  see  how  constantly  I  find  author- 
ity and  support  for  the  things  I  believe  in  some  of  his  public 
utterances.  No  one  who  has  to  speak  on  any  important  occa- 
sion on  any  subject  connected  with  American  politics  or  with 
history  or  literature  should  fail  to  consult  your  father's  four 
volumes  of  Addresses  and  Speeches.  They  are  storehouses, 
not  only  of  original  thought,  but  of  apt  quotation  and  illus- 
tration ;  and  in  his  estimates  of  the  character  of  his  contem- 
poraries or  of  men  of  former  generations,  I  hardly  recall  an 
opinion  which  does  not  seem  to  me  wise  and  sound,  as  well 
as  expressed  with  unequalled  grace  and  eloquence. 

He  always  treated  me  with  the  greatest  consideration  and 
courtesy,  and  I  was  especially  drawn  to  him  from  the  fact  of 
his  great  esteem  for  my  father,  —  an  esteem  which  was  fully 
reciprocated,  —  and  because  of  his  great  affection  for  Charles 
Emerson,  who  was  the  idol  of  my  childhood.  There  is  no 
man  left  who  possesses  such  a  store  of  rich  and  abundant 
learning,  or  such  rare  oratorical  powers,  or  such  dignity  and 
grace  of  personal  bearing,  as  were  your  father's. 
"  The  knights  are  dust." 
I  am,  with  high  personal  regard,  faithfully  yours, 

George  F.  Hoar. 

Robert  C.  Winthrop,  Jr.,  Esq. 


After  the  foregoing  addresses  were  in  type,  and  just 
one  week  from  the  date  of  this  meeting,  the  President 
of  the  Society,  Rev.  George  E.  Ellis,  D.D.,  LL.D., 
died  suddenly  of  apoplexy,  at  his  house,  110  Marl- 
borough Street,  Boston,  in  his  eighty-first  year. 


14  DAY  USE 

RETURN  TO  DESK  FROM  WHICH  BORROWED 

LOAN  DEPT. 

This  book  is  due  on  the  last  date  stamped  below,  or 

on  the  date  to  which  renewed. 

Renewed  books  are  subject  to  immediate  recall. 


JAN  2  6  1967  7  6 


RECEIVED 


JAN2V67-11AM 


LOAN  DEPT. 


LD  2lA-60m-7,'66 
(G4427sl0)476B 


General  Library 

University  of  California 

Berkeley 


979150 


£3-40 


THE  UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA  UBRARY 


